The Long Goodbye -

The Long Goodbye : A Legacy of Genre Subversion Whether encountered as Raymond Chandler’s definitive 1953 novel or Robert Altman’s radical 1973 film adaptation, The Long Goodbye stands as a monumental critique of the very genres it inhabits. It is a story about the death of old-fashioned codes in a modern, amoral world—a theme that has kept the title relevant for over 70 years. The Novel: Chandler’s Masterpiece of Melancholy

Raymond Chandler considered The Long Goodbye his greatest and toughest project. Written while his wife, Cissy, was terminally ill and Chandler himself was battling alcoholism, the book is less a traditional mystery and more a "moody, brooding" meditation on truth and social decay. Writing The Long Goodbye - Mark Coggins The Long Goodbye